Dave Mustaine Talks Megadeth’s Thin Lizzy Cover

Megadeth's new 'Super Collider' album found the band recording outside material for the first time since 1988. And they chose wisely, reaching into Thin Lizzy's vaults to cover the band's classic 'Cold Sweat.'

Frontman Dave Mustaine talked about recording 'Cold Sweat' during a recent interview with Classic Rock Magazine, taking pains to stress that his decision to tackle the song had nothing to do with trying to one-up his former bandmates in Metallica (who covered Thin Lizzy's 'Whiskey in the Jar' on their 'Garage Inc.' LP). "There have been some smart alecks out there that say that we did it because we wanted to do a Thin Lizzy tune better than Metallica, but we’re not playing that game anymore," Mustaine explained. "I did the song because we had wanted to do that song for a long time."

What it came down to for Mustaine was his personal identification with this particular track. "There are a lot of great Thin Lizzy songs, but 'Cold Sweat' just called my name because I’m a street kid just like Phil Lynott was," Mustaine insisted. "We have a lot in common and, of course, we have several things that are different, but when I listen to those lyrics, I really identify with them. In my estimation, some of the best Thin Lizzy music ever written was the title track to 'Thunder and Lightning' and 'Cold Sweat.'"

Adding that he hoped Lynott would be proud of Megadeth's version of 'Cold Sweat,' Mustaine mused, "When you do a cover song there are three things you can do: You can suck, you can do it as good as the original or you can do it better. Our goal was to do it as good as the original, as we don’t think we could have made it better ... I think our version is the closest to the original that has been done, though there are some other good versions."